Report On Terrorism Prisoners Stonewalled

Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. Posted March 6, 2003.

The officials who control what the world knows about prisoners in the war on terror make writing to them sound routine and simple. The Defense Department and the International Committee of the Red Cross say they have delivered more than 5,000 letters to and from the approximately 625 "enemy combatants" being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Yet when a group of graduate students at the University of North Texas in Denton wrote letters to 54 of those prisoners, the Red Cross and the Defense Department both refused -- at least thus far -- to deliver their mail. The letters, which sought basic information about the prisoners for a news article, were part of an advanced reporting class project at the university's Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism.

In keeping with the secrecy surrounding much of the war on terror, the Defense Department has not identified any of the prisoners who have been held and interrogated at Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta. Military officials say only that the prisoners, most of whom were initially detained in Afghanistan, are "enemy combatants" linked either to the Taliban, the former religious leadership in Afghanistan, or to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorism organization.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has told reporters that the prisoners are "among the most vicious killers on the face of the earth."

UNT graduate journalism students identified 54 of those prisoners by name and nationality from international news accounts, court records, and interviews with families, lawyers and embassy officials in more than a dozen nations.

The students then wrote each prisoner a one-page letter and sent all the letters to the Red Cross and the Defense Department, asking them to deliver the mail. The letters, which were written in English and translated into Arabic, requested basic information about the prisoners. The envelopes addressed to the detainees were left unsealed so their contents could be inspected.

"You are receiving this letter because we want to know the facts surrounding your capture, detention and life at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," the letters said. "We would be interested to know what you were doing when apprehended by U.S. forces, what your daily life is like in Camp Delta, and what your hopes for the future are. We would like to know your views about the United States and Al Qaeda."

The Red Cross says it has delivered 3,300 personal letters to and from the prisoners and their relatives during the last year -- "a precious link," the organization says, to the outside world. But the Red Cross refused to deliver letters to the prisoners the students had identified.

Frank Sieverts, assistant to the International Committee of the Red Cross' chief of delegation in Washington, D.C., said Oct. 29 that the agency can accept mail from families only. He suggested that the students attempt delivery of the letters through the military.

The Defense Department operates an independent mail delivery system for the prisoners. Military officials said in July that they had delivered an additional 1,900 pieces of mail. More recent figures are not available.

"We ensure the detainees are allowed to write and receive letters," Army Reserve Master Sgt. Debra A. Tart is quoted as saying in an Armed Forces Press Service article dated July 23, 2002.

"The detainees are not limited to our service. They can also send and receive mail through the International Committee of the Red Cross."

The Defense Department has had the students' letters to the prisoners for more than three months but has not said whether they will be delivered. The letters were initially sent in November to Victoria Clarke, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in Washington. Clarke's office said she forwarded the package to Harold Heilsnis, the department's director for public inquiry and analysis.

In an e-mail to Land, Heilsnis said he would "contact my colleagues at the U.S. Southern Command to discuss the potential delivery that you seek. I will then be back in touch with you as soon as possible after that."

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